I'm pretty excited about the language. I like the combination of ruby syntax with static typing. The author is just nitpicking on puts, type declarations. It is a DIFFERENT language from Java. And it's resonating with a number of HN readers already.
Agreed. There's enough people familiar with Ruby out there now to give a language like Mirah, the early adopter userbase it needs to grow and get traction.
Also I think Mirah has targeted a real niche, a true alternative JVM language to Java that doesn't have the baggage of its own standard library.